Lamar will host LSU in a Sept. 4 women’s soccer match.

The nonconference battle will be one of 11 the Cardinals are hosting this season. Lamar released its season schedule Thursday.

“As we continue to build our program, we feel it’s important to schedule some high-quality opponents into our nonconference schedule,” Lamar coach Steve Holeman said. “The main goal of our nonconferenceschedule is to prepare us for the Southland, and we feel this will accomplish that. We have scheduled various levels and styles so we will be ready when it’s time to start conference play.”

Lamar went 18-4-1 and 10-1 in the Southland and won the conference tournament last fall, narrowly losing to Texas A&M in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The 16-win improvement from 2016 matched an NCAA record.

Lamar will host an exhibition against Rice on Aug. 8 and begin the regular season with two home games Aug. 17 against Grambling State and Aug. 19 against the University of Houston. The Cards then will make a two-match swing into Oklahoma, facing Oklahoma State on Aug. 24 and Oral Roberts on Aug. 26.

A four-match home swing will begin Aug. 31 with Southern, followed by LSU, UTSA on Sept. 7 and Colorado State on Sept. 9.

The Southland schedule for Lamar: Sept. 14 at Nicholls State; Sept. 21 vs. Central Arkansas and Sept. 23 vs. Northwestern State, both at home; Sept. 28 at Sam Houston State and Sept. 30 at Stephen F. Austin; Oct. 5 vs. Houston Baptist at home; Oct. 12 at Incarnate Word and Oct. 14 at Abilene Christian; Oct. 19 vs. Houston Baptist and Oct. 21 vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, both at home; and Oct. 26 at McNeese State.